Indian Country Today Media Network.com - Alison Owingshttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/tags/alison-owings
enEnough with the ‘Teepees’ Already! Book Review and Interviewhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/11/26/enough-teepees-already-book-review-and-interview-60645
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>The term <em>Indian</em> lumps together members of myriad tribes with different languages, backgrounds, locations, spiritual beliefs and governments just to simplify matters for non-Indians.</p></div></div></div>Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:00:23 +0000theresa60645 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/11/26/enough-teepees-already-book-review-and-interview-60645#commentsSummer Reading for Perspective on Current American Indian Policy Debateshttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/07/19/summer-reading-perspective-current-american-indian-policy-debates
<fieldset class="field-group-fieldset group-opinions-body form-wrapper" id="node_opinion_rss_group_opinions_body"><legend><span class="fieldset-legend">Body</span></legend><div class="fieldset-wrapper"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>The debt ceiling negotiations are deep underground. While there’s plenty of action on the surface—posturing, mostly—there are also quiet talks about both temporary and real solutions. Indeed, <a title="Economy: Default 'Off the Table,' Debt Deal Will Be Struck: Geithner - CNBC" href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/43792737" target="_blank">Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told CNBC on Monday</a> that there will be a “deal” and that default is off the table.</p>
<p>Hopeful news. We’ll have to stay tuned. Meanwhile I am in Alaska on assignment ... so I thought this might be a good opportunity to write about what I’ve been reading this summer.</p>
<p>My three picks:<br />
• Walter Echo-Hawk’s <a title="Walter Echo-Hawk | In the Courts of the Conqueror: The 10 Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided | Fulcrum Publishing" href="http://www.fulcrum-books.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=6071" target="_blank"><em>In the Courts of the Conquerors: The Ten Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided</em></a>.<br />
• Roberta Ulrich’s <a title="Amazon.com: American Indian Nations from Termination to Restoration, 1953-2006 (9780803233645): Roberta Ulrich: Books" href="http://www.amazon.com/American-Nations-Termination-Restoration-1953-2006/dp/0803233647/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1310992672&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank"><em>American Indian Nations from Termination to Restoration, 1953-2006</em></a>.<br />
• Alison Owings’ <a title="Rutgers University Press: Indian Voices: Alison Owings" href="http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/acatalog/indian_voices.html" target="_blank"><em>Indian Voices: Listening to Native Americans</em></a>.</p>
<p>These three books have relevance to today’s headlines.</p>
<p>Echo-Hawk’s book ought to retire the entire debate about <a title="Judicial activism - Conservapedia" href="http://conservapedia.com/Judicial_activism" target="_blank">judicial activism</a>. It has become a conservative article of faith that judges should narrowly follow the law when deciding cases. But Echo-Hawk methodically picks apart that fiction. He shows that even sainted justices, such as John Marshall, invented a legal theory from dust about the doctrine of discovery in Johnson v. M’Intosh. “Marshall claimed that the nation had no choice in how it dealt with the tribes and that the normal rules of international law did not apply,” Echo-Hawk writes. “Thus, the normal rules governing the relations between the conqueror and conquered were simply ‘incapable of application’ in the United States. It was the Indians' own fault.”</p>
<p>Marshall had a financial stake in the case that would not be permitted under today’s standards. And, Echo-Hawk points out, this was the same justice who at the end of his career became famous for Worcester v. Georgia, where he supported the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation against the state.</p>
<p>The dark history that Echo-Hawk chronicles takes on another form in Roberta Ulrich’s book about termination. She does a good job of capturing the sheer force of personality of Sen. Arthur Watkins. The Utah Republican championed termination and would not listen to any alternative. In his “typical fashion” Watkins would let a Senate hearing witness speak for a few minutes and then badger the witness. He frequently interrupted, pestering repeatedly until the senator heard the answer he wanted that “Indians should take the lead and stand on their own two feet and become full-fledged American citizens.”</p>
<p>The Watkins and <a title="University of Nebraska Press: Ulrich speaks out" href="http://nebraskapress.typepad.com/university_of_nebraska_pr/2011/04/ulrich-speaks-out.html" target="_blank">termination story is important today</a> because the seeds of that disaster are sprouting again in public policy. The post-war environment, like today's, was shaped by the idea that the U.S. government could no longer afford social programs for American Indians.</p>
<p>The third book, Alison Owings’ <em>Indian Voices</em>, is an antidote to these sober (but critical) histories. She listens to native people today, and reflects their stories back, revealing current challenges and hopes. I have to add, many of my friends are profiled in this book, people I consider amazing and wise.</p>
<p>One of those remarkable people that’s portrayed in Indian Voices is Emma George. She’s Lemhi Shoshone, the Shoshone band that first encountered Lewis &amp; Clark. The Lemhi reserved a small reservation on the Lemhi River through a treaty signed in 1875, but that document was never ratified, and after the turn of the century her people began their long sad walk to Fort Hall. Yet for George and many other families from the Lemhi band home will always be back in that Salmon River country.</p>
<p>“There’s things you go through in life and they’re hard, but other people have harder lives. It makes you humble and grateful to be blessed with life, no matter what the situation is. To live another day,” George says in the book.</p>
<p>Indeed, history’s harsh accounting is not complete without that one idea on the other side of the ledger. No matter how a court invents law to steal land; or how Congress extinguishes a tribal government; or, even when a homeland remains an project for the future, there still the blessing to live another day.</p>
<p>And that will remain true even if the deficit talks completely blow up.</p>
<p><em>Mark Trahant is a writer, speaker and Twitter poet. He is a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and lives in Fort Hall, Idaho. Trahant’s recent book, </em><a title="Mark Trahant, The Last Great Battle of the Indian Wars" href="http://www.marktrahant.com/www.marktrahant.com/The_Last_Great_Battle.html" target="_blank">The Last Great Battle of the Indian Wars</a><em>, is the story of Sen. Henry Jackson and Forrest Gerard.</em></p>
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<div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Short title:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Summer Reading for P</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-category field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Category:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/all" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">All</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Books</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/history" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">History</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-full-name field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Full name:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Mark Trahant</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/mark-trahant-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mark Trahant</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/walter-echo-hawk" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Walter Echo-Hawk</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/alison-owings" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Alison Owings</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/roberta-ulrich" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Roberta Ulrich</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author-image field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Author image:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/author/mark-trahant" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mark Trahant</a></div></div></div>Tue, 19 Jul 2011 07:57:16 +0000jrobertson43336 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/07/19/summer-reading-perspective-current-american-indian-policy-debates#commentsThe Declaration of Independence, Jefferson's "Merciless Indian Savages," and Getting Flamed on Huffington Posthttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/07/07/declaration-independence-jeffersons-merciless-indian-savages-and-getting-flamed
<fieldset class="field-group-fieldset group-opinions-body form-wrapper" id="node_opinion_rss_group_opinions_body"><legend><span class="fieldset-legend">Body</span></legend><div class="fieldset-wrapper"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>It seemed like a simple point to make, and the right time to make it.</p>
<p>After spending nearly 10 years in Indian country researching and writing my new book, <em>Indian Voices: Listening to Native Americans</em>, I thought that I, a non-Native, was in as good a position as anyone to make mention of three distressing words in the Declaration of Independence.</p>
<p>The three words are "merciless Indian savages."</p>
<p>It was my feeling that relatively few people realize those words are there, amid the glories of Thomas Jefferson's often quoted prose. I thought, Okay, my fellow Americans, let's acknowledge. Here's the link to the essay: <a title="Alison Owings: The Damaging Three Words of the Declaration of Independence" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alison-owings/a-radical-suggestion-exci_b_888897.html" target="_blank">"The Damaging Three Words of the Declaration of Independence"</a>.</p>
<p>I have to say that post is not own best prose and the last sentences I would have edited had I let them simmer a while, but I wanted to get the whole thing to a waiting editor at Huffington Post before the 4th of July weekend started.</p>
<p>Fast forward.</p>
<p>I mean really fast. When did I realize my post wouldn't be lost in the Huff Post slog? When I saw it featured on page one, with a photo of the Declaration. When did I realize people were reading it? When I kept getting messages that various people were following me on Twitter. (<a title="Twitter: AlisonOwings" href="http://twitter.com/#!/alisonowings" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://twitter.com/alisonowings">@alisonowings</a>, if you care to join them). And when the number of messages went from hundreds to, yes, thousands.</p>
<p>Mention of "merciless Indian savage" kicked up such a huge and ferocious storm that I have not read all the comments: 3,187 of them when I last checked.</p>
<p>Of the many I did read, a majority were wagging finger-ish. "Didn't I realize that the Declaration reflected thinking in the 18th century, not the 21st?" "Didn't I know that the passage I quoted is part of a long list of grievances against King George III?" "Please be aware that Jefferson owned slaves…" To which I say, "Duh, duh, and duh."</p>
<p>Some comments were shocking by perspective alone. Common themes: Look what Indians did to settlers, savagely and mercilessly, wrote several people. Jefferson was right! Or, "Jefferson was referring only to Indians in western settlements"—("Nothing in that statement shows a belief that ALL Indians were merciless or even savage," wrote nullcodes). Or, "Now Indians can go to college for free." A person with the handle of jdjay comments, "There were some pretty evil tribes but focusing on the bad ones as being representa­tive of the whole is obviously not an objectivel­y Christian or spiritual approach."</p>
<p>Here sunshine14 steps in: "Does not matter if their [sic] were evil tribes or good tribes, not our land was it, regardless­?" This rankles Syllogizer. "You are ignoring the facts that even Tocquevill­e pointed out: the Indians did not even HAVE a concept of land ownership when the Europeans arrived. So no, the land was not 'stolen', since it wasn't 'owned' in the first place."</p>
<p>Oh, Lordy. <em>That</em> one drew a lot of heat.</p>
<p>Thankfully, a number of people, including many self-identified as Native, challenged the challengers, and the challengers' challengers. One gentleman (as I think of him) took on a creep who wrote that my essay, meant for the 4th of July of all days, was "treasonous." Eek.</p>
<p>There were also many, many, many people in the waaaay-off-the-subject crowd who posted comments about the Constitution, about Nazis, about the Gaza flotilla, about black soldiers, about God, about human flaws, Jefferson's and others, about…</p>
<p>Amid the onslaught, out of curiosity I checked the Amazon ranking of my book, <em>Indian Voices</em>. It was way up in general, and up to #14 in books about Native Americans. Okay, that is a nice if unintentional side effect, assuming post and sales are related. But what lingers more is knowing, up cyber-close and personal, how much ignorance and enmity there is in this country about and toward Native people, then and now. Maybe my post alleviated some ignorance (a few people actually commented, Thanks for telling me about those three words!). Surely, though, there are less stressful ways to get such points across.</p>
<p>Or are there?</p>
<p><em>Alison Owings is the author of the recently published and highly praised work, </em>Indian Voices: Listening to Native Americans<em> (Rutgers), her third "anti-stereotype" book written from the perspective of an outsider. She may be reached via <a title="AlisonOwings.com" href="http://alisonowings.com/" target="_blank">alisonowings.com</a> or followed <a title="Twitter: AlisonOwings" href="http://twitter.com/#!/alisonowings" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://twitter.com/alisonowings">@alisonowings</a> on Twitter.</em></p>
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<div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Short title:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The Declaration of I</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-category field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Category:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/all" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">All</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/government" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Government</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/history" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">History</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/racism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Racism</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-full-name field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Full name:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Alison Owings</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/huffington-post" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Huffington Post</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/alison-owings" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Alison Owings</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/thomas-jefferson-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Thomas Jefferson</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/declaration-independence" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Declaration of Independence</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author-image field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Author image:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/author/alison-owings" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Alison Owings</a></div></div></div>Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:10:34 +0000jrobertson41995 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/07/07/declaration-independence-jeffersons-merciless-indian-savages-and-getting-flamed#commentsIndian Voices Excerpted: Loud and Proud!http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/04/11/indian-voices-excerpted-loud-and-proud-27430
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><em>For </em>Indian Voices: Listening to Native Americans<em>, author Alison Owings journeyed across America—east to west, north to south, and back again—to document what Native Americans from 16 tribal nations—including Pawnee, Ojibwe, Navajo, Ho</em></p></div></div></div>Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:00:04 +0000theresa27430 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/04/11/indian-voices-excerpted-loud-and-proud-27430#comments